Vijayawada: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan made a strong plea for passing the women’s reservation Bill in Parliament, at the valedictory session of the National Women’s Parlia-ment conference in Amaravati on Sunday.
She said everyone says they want 33 per cent reservation for women in Assemblies and Parliament and yet the Bill has been pending for several years. Moreover, she pointed out, this should not be seen as something besto-wed on women. “Women are half the population; they manage their families and can play a key role in social engineering,” she observed.
Ms Mahajan said women should be given decision-making powers. More such forums like the NWP are required to empower women and discuss their problems. She congratulated the Andhra Pradesh government for organising the conference.
She strayed from the topic of women to touch on politics when she said that it is great to see Amaravati farmers voluntarily coming forward to give their land for the new capital city and the entire nation should take inspiration from these farmers.
Ms Mahajan applauded women’s leadership capabilities and gave the examples of P.V. Sindhu, Koneru Hampi, and Saina Nehwal who have won international renown. She said the history of Amaravati shows it had once been the capital of gods.
